Hope, the kind that springs eternal even after the Giants blow a game like yesterday's, was enough to get 300 folding-chair-toting optimists to show up at the stadium ticket window this morning.

They were there to buy tickets to Giants playoff games. Since the Giants may or may not be in the playoffs, the team was calling them tickets to "potential games."

But the hard concrete sidewalk that many of the optimists had been sleeping on was anything but potential.

"It's worth it," said Frank Davis, the first guy in line, who had been waiting since Monday. "They'll make it. Even after yesterday's game, in which they stunk."

After leading 1-0 much of the game yesterday, the Giants ended up losing 9- 5 to the Dodgers, but didn't lose any ground to the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks, who also lost.

Davis took a couple of days off from his carpet cleaning business to wait in line. He has been living on meatball sandwiches from the deli across the street and declared himself a happy man.

"I'm beat, I haven't slept well and I haven't taken a shower," he said. "But that's all OK. The team will pull together and I'll be there."

Brenden Scanlan was playing gin rummy with a couple of guys to pass the time. They sat up against the brick wall of the ballpark, surrounded by McDonald's wrappers, empty Gatorade bottles and other signs of endurance.

Nino Cresci, a veteran Giants usher, said the crowd was good-natured, happy,

and that the long wait had been fight-free.

"These people are optimists," he said. "You have to be. They're still a game and a half back."

John Deavers drove from Lodi to stand in line, because, if he didn't, he could never forgive himself. He spent last night on King Street, huddled against the wall, listening to the Giants' horrible loss on a radio with headphones.

"I was so disgusted I took off the headphones," he said. "I was mad. But I knew they didn't lose on purpose. So I put the headphones back on."

Surrounded by fellow optimists, Deavers said he was a happy man, too.

"What better proof of the immutability of hope," he said, "than to be with 300 other believers, after the drubbing they got last night."

The Giants were selling lower deck tickets for $40, upper deck tickets for $25 and bleacher tickets for $15. Fans were allowed to buy up to six tickets for any or all three potential games, which would be played during the second week of October.

Fans without sleeping bags could also buy tickets online, although that process was almost as frustrating as the sixth inning of yesterday's game.

Although some online buyers got through, most ticket orders were met with the following words in bright red letters: "Sorry, we were unable to process your order due to high transaction volumes -- please try to submit your request again."